OREANDA-NEWS. Russian oil industry workers asked the government until 2022 to release them from conducting a state environmental review during the construction of production facilities in the I hazard category. This was written on Wednesday by the Russian business newspaper, who read a letter from the leaders of oil companies to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

According to the Federal Law "On Environmental Expertise", the design documentation for facilities of hazard category I must undergo an environmental review from 2019. However, for such facilities in oil production until 2020, there is a transition period that exempts them from the need to conduct an examination. "Oil workers are asking the government to extend the transition period for production facilities until the beginning of 2022", the newspaper writes.

According to oil companies, a law on environmental impact assessment should be enacted in 2022, which will transfer state environmental impact assessment to the pre-design stage. This "will allow not to carry out it for each constructed object and reduce the number of examinations," say the oil industry. According to the newspaper, the letter to Medvedev was signed by the heads of Rosneft Igor Sechin, Lukola Vagit Alekperov, Gazprom Neft Alexander Dyukov, Tatneft Nail Maganov and the acting general director of Surgutneftegaz Alexander Bulanov.

In oil companies and in the office of Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Gordeev, they didn't respond to requests from the publication, a representative of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said he was not familiar with the appeal. A source in the Russian media close to the Ministry of Natural Resources noted that Russian environmental supervision couldn't cope with the number of inspections if the transition period was not extended.